The government’s autumn statement was “a spectacular failure” for train passengers, the Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said this afternoon (Wednesday 23 November).
The Green MP said: “The Chancellor’s decision not to invest in the Brighton main line, and to offer no further news on BML2, is a spectacular failure.
“Passengers are crying out for the government to step in and ease their misery – yet Philip Hammond offers nothing to fix the failures on our railways.
“The rest of the autumn statement offers further misery for people in Brighton and Hove.
“While the ban on letting agents’ fees is a step forward, it was the sole piece of good news.
“Clearly Philip Hammond listened to campaigners on letting agents but he has sadly continued his government’s failure to build enough social housing.
“The Chancellor cannot sugar coat the fact that this set of announcements will continue tax cuts for high earners and corporations while utterly failing to protect either our NHS or local services.
“A government with a genuinely bold vision could have used this autumn statement to ensure that the economy is future-facing on everything from the risks of a potential Brexit to the threats posed by climate change and growing inequality.
“Instead we have a backwards-looking budget that fails to wage war on poverty and fails to grasp the realities of an uncertain world and the limited resources in it.”
Perhaps Caroline would like to explain what she feels are the problems with the Brighton Main Line and what investment is required to resolve the issues of staffing, capacity and maintenance?
Also an explanation of what BML2 would offer and how it would address each of these areas would not go amiss.
Just calling the decision not to invest a “failure” without providing an alternative proposal seems to be typical green smear tactics.
Lucas has articulated what is wrong with the BML and supported BML2 for a long time. We have a government backed strike to break a trade union coupled with a lack of vision and investment.
Sadly, it is all too expected that you would support the woeful state of the railway service or the disaster that is the UK’s housing policy. But then you supported this.